4 Letter from C. llumloUl 



During the fixteen months we have been traverfing the 

 vail territorv fituated between the coafl, the Orenoquo, Rio- 

 Nigro, and the river of the Amazons, C. Bonpland has 

 dried, with duplicates, more than fix thoufand plants. I 

 have defcribed with him on the fpot twelve hundred fpe- 

 cies, great part of which appeared to us to belong to genera 

 not defcribed by Aublet, Jaequin, Mutis, or Dombey. We 

 have collected infers, (hells, and different kinds of wood 

 proper for dyeing; we have difTecled crocodiles, lamantins, 

 apts, and the gymnotus eleclricus, the fluid of which is ab- 

 folutely galvanic and not electric; and have defcribed a great 

 many ferpents, lizards, and fifli. 



I have made drawings of a great number of obje&s ; in a 

 word, I flatter myfelf that if I have erred it is rather through 

 ignorance than want of activity. What enjoyment to live 

 in the midfl of thefe riches of nature, fo majeftic and grand ! 

 Behold, then, the deareft and moll ardent of my wifhes gra- 

 tified! Amidfl the thick forefts of the Rio-Nigro'; furrounded 

 by ferocious tygers and crocodiles ; my body tormented with 

 the (lings of the formidable mofkitos and ants ; having had 

 for three months no other aliment than water, bananas, and 

 manioc, among the Otomaqua Indians, who eat earth ; or 

 on the banks or the Cafquiara, under the equator, where, in 

 the courts of a hundred and thirty leagues, no human being 

 is feen ; — in all thefe cmbarraliing fituations I never repented 

 of my undertakings : my fufterings have been great, but they 

 were onlv momentary. 



When I lett Spain I intended to proceed directly to 

 Mexico, thence to Peru and the Philippines; but a ma- 

 lignant fever, which broke out in our frigate, induced me to 

 remain on this coafl of South America; and, thinking it pofii- 

 ble to penetrate thence into the interior, I undertook two jour- 

 neys, one to the millions of the Chavma Indians of Paria, and 

 the other to that vaft country fituated to the north of the river 

 of the Amazons, between Popayan and the mountains of the 

 French part of Guyana. We twice pailed the grand cata- 

 racts of the Orenoquo, and thofe of Atures and Maypura, in 

 lat. 50^ 12' and long. 5° 39', W. dep. from Paris 4 43' and 

 4 41' 40". From The mouth of the Guaviara and the rivers 

 Atabapo, Temi, and Tuamini, I caufed my pirogua to bt 

 earned by land as far as the Rio-Nigro, while we followed 

 on foot through forefts of Hevea, Cinchona, and Canell* 

 VY r intertona. I defeended the Rio-Nigro as far as Saint 

 Carlos* that I might determine its longitude by Berthoud'$ 



■■ The error in the latitude (d* Anville's chart) is more than two de- 

 grees, as it had never been determined by aftronomical initrumenrs. 



time-, 



